IT IS not always that you find a 10-year-old Zambian girl – add even boy – who says: “I want to become a doctor and a French speaker when I complete school.” Yet that is what Twalumba Namayawa, a 10-year-old girl of Lusaka says. She is only in Grade four at St Patrick’s Girls’ Primary and Secondary School in Lusaka.

Twalumba wants to study medicine and become a medical doctor. But not just an English-speaking medical doctor; one who is fluent in French and even Portuguese. In September this year, there was a career’s day at Twalumba’s school and, as expected of a yet-to-be medical doctor, she wore a white lab coat, a gown that is worn by such professionals.

“I was very happy wearing a lab coat. I looked like a doctor,” she says. “I just want to become a doctor. That is what I want,” she says. But maybe her happiness would have been complete if she spoke French – the language that she admires so much. “I love to learn how to speak French. But my mum does not allow me to use her smart phone to watch videos of people speaking French. But I love the language.

“I also want to know how to speak Portuguese,” Twalumba says. Twalumba’s mother, Nang’andu, wants the girl to concentrate on classwork before she can “maybe” focus on learning French. For now, Twalumba, whose name means thank you, is probably waiting for who to thank when they aid her to learn French, as she grows to later become a medical doctor.